The Bulletproof Beast...
apropos of the new Joe Klein "tell-all" about potential 2008 presidential candidate Hillary (It's Takes a village...) Clinton, I have but one thing to say to my fellow republicans: if you haven't already noticed, scandal seems to follow in this woman's wake like seagulls follow garbage scows, and after all this time, all the scandals, all the miserable, petty details, she's still dancing between raindrops. Clean that drool off your lower lips and forget Klein's book.

When it comes to shit, it just doesn't stick to Her Heinous.

To begin with, if you were expecting salacious details of tawdry business deals, steamy extra-marital affairs, White House shenanigans a plenty, then go ahead and read the book. I'm sure there's a few morsels of Bill and Hill scandals that haven't seen the light of day. Some of them might even be entertaining. However, if you're expecting one of the potential scandalous tidbits upon the printed page to jump up, come to life like a freakazoid Frankenstein's monster, and put short shrift to the apparent Heir Apparent, then forget it. Save yourself the heartache and the ulcer.

Something we should have learned from 8 years of All Clintons All the Time: it does not matter how sleazy her husband is. It doesn't matter how sleazy she is, she always manages to weasel out. So, why bother? It's not like a revelation about Hillary stealing the White House silverware would actually shock anyone (we kinda expect it), nor would anyone be surprised if it turns out it was actually the Hildebeest that ran over Buddy the White House Labrador. It's not as if people actually think the woman is nice. You can't make the charges stick, and even if you did manage to get her frock just a wee bit dirty, the media and a million supporters crawl out of the woodwork to defend her. Eventually, they talk so much, and change the subject so much, that we all forget exactly what we're talking about in the first place, and Hilly goes merrily upon her way.

Unless there's something so completely out of left field, so egregious, so disgusting, the book helps no one on my side of the isle to score political points. So drop it. Joe Klein will not be an avenging angel, a messiah delivering us from the specter of a Clinton presidency that comes equipped with it's own tits (instead of some intern's).

And I wish to God that some of my fellow 'pubbies would get the idea out of their heads that Mr. Klein's book is a godsend. Nothing in there will ever dissuade the true believers in Hillary's camp, and the rest of us are under the impression that her picture already appears besides "SCANDALOUS" in the dictionary.

Heck, we're still three years away from the election, for the love of God!

In the final analysis, if you need to formulate a strategy for beating "the smartest woman in the world" in 2008, I'll give you a start on it:

Simply let her talk. She will eventually talk herself in to a hole anyway, because she's not as smart as she thinks she is. People already see through the phony support for the troops, the zeal with which she appears to be fighting the war on terror, her sudden urge to be a fiscally responsible senator, and the session with Billy Graham. Heck, it was obvious after the last election that most democrats would be back in church the following day. In short, all this "moving to the center" nonsense that Dick Morris says she's doing is simply too transparent to even the dumbest amongst us.She can get away with it, in terms of seeming to thumb her nose at the rest of the democratic party, because she's popular (like almost-Oprah popular) with democrats and they could forgive her "moving to the center" because they know in their heart of hearts that she means none of it. The only thing they could never forgive her for would be divorcing Bill to marry Newt Gingrich.

So let her talk. Let her put her ideas (actually someone else's with her name written in crayon over them) on the table and let her defend them. More importantly, ask her for the details. Because there will be none. She'll mouth a laundry list of platitudes which will all sound so scrummy we'll ask for seconds before we've finished what's on our plate. And she'll dish out even more, so much so that we'll forget to ask what the recipe is. When someone finally calls her on that, the details, the specifics, she'll stand there like a deer caught in your headlights.

That's how you beat Hillary Clinton. You do not do it by expecting some journalist to do it for you.